Professor Winkler Quoted in the News-Times About Guns as Metaphors in Political Ads

October 27, 2014 – Professor Adam Winkler comments in the News-Times about gun control and gun rights advocates using guns as metaphors in this year’s political ads.

But at a time when Obama and his family have been under siege in the White House, including one attacker firing shots with an AK-47-type semiautomatic rifle, and survivalist Eric Frein remains at large in the Poconos after killing a Pennsylvania state trooper, some observers worry that gun-related anti-tyranny rhetoric is sending the wrong message.

"The Founding Fathers were talking about real deprivation of liberty, not disappointment because you lost the policy battle,'' said Adam Winkler, a constitutional law professor at UCLA and author of "Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America."

"They misunderstand the purpose of the Constitution. It didn't give people the right to overthrow it because they're not happy with the results."